The Boldness of Love

Ever had writer’s block? I’ve had a pretty bad case the past few weeks. It’s awful -- the nagging worry that perhaps I’ll never ever be able to write anything creative again. Perhaps those creative juices have run dry, never to flow again. This proves inconvenient for a scholar and administrator, as writing and publishing are a big part of the gig. Every sentence I manage to eek out I delete just as quickly. And there I am again, staring at the cursor. It blinks relentlessly back at me, as if daring me to try to pen another sentence. Rather fortuitously for me, this past week brought our MFA in Creative Writing faculty and students onto campus for their annual summer residency. I was lucky enough to spend time with a number of accomplished writers as we imagined new and creative possi...

A few weeks ago I had the extraordinary privilege of chatting with Ishmael Beah, a recent Boston Speaker’s Series speaker and an individual with an incredible story of redemption and hope.In his book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah recounts in vivid detail his experiences as a 12 year old child soldier in his native Sierra Leone. After weeks of running from violence following the brutal murder of his entire family, he was taken captive and trained to be a killer, just like those who had decimated his community. Together with his child soldier comrades Beah was kept in a perpetual drug-induced state, consuming large quantities of marijuana, amphetamines, and a combination of cocaine and gunpowder. This narcotic cocktail was so powerful, even the pain from bullets and glass...

Last week, in collaboration with Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark, Lesley University hosted a forum on domestic violence. On the panel were Middlesex County District Attorney Marion Ryan; Lesley alum and Co-Founder/Director of Emerge David Adams; Executive Director of Transition House Risa Mednick; and myself, a clinical psychologist with experience in the field of child and family trauma. The forum was designed to provide ample opportunity for the audience to ask tough questions, and to probe the ways that we can all address domestic violence in our communities.In the audience were front line professionals, law enforcement, clergy, advocates from a wide range of cultural community agencies, community members, and Lesley faculty and students. I was especially glad to see one ...

It’s been a relentless winter in New England. I recently found myself chuckling when I heard a radio commentator say that this year the ground hogs didn’t even bother to come out to look for their shadows because they were buried under seven feet of snow. And unfortunately, seven feet of snow is not hyperbole. This unusually harsh season has tested the patience of us all. Schools and businesses closed for days – some even for weeks – at a time, transportation nightmares, and frayed nerves. One need only to witness a dispute between otherwise friendly neighbors over a coveted parking spot to recognize the weather weariness in us all. I have certainly not been immune to this. My patience officially ran out the day our snow shovel disappeared. Our snow shovel is no ordinary shovel. My h...

We all make mistakes—that’s a given. Humans make mistakes with surprising regularity. What varies are the ways in which people deal with the fact that they have made a mistake. Some readily acknowledge the mistake, and quickly move on to making reparation or figuring out how to correct the error. In these instances everyone is able to move on, the mistake becoming something of the past. Best case scenario, it becomes a learning experience.Then there are those who make a mistake and are completely undone by the experience. They conclude that this is definitive evidence that they are a failure—convinced that no one will ever see beyond their error. They relive it, beating themselves up. Trapped in this self-punishment cycle, these individuals become paralyzed, unable to take proactive ste...